A School History of the United States Part 46

Lee, who, joined by Jackson, attacked McClellan at Mechanicsville and Games Mill, and forced him to fall back, fighting for six days (June 26 to July 1, 1862)[1] as he retreated to Harrisons Landing, on the James River. There the army remained till August, when it was recalled to the Potomac.

[Footnote 1: The "Seven Days' Battles" are these and one fought June 25.]

%440. Lee's Raid into Maryland; Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg.%--While the Army of the Potomac was at Harrisons Landing, a new force called the Army of Virginia was organized, and General John Pope placed in command. At the same time General Halleck was recalled from the West and made general in chief of the Union armies. Pope intended to move straight against Richmond. But when McClellan in obedience to orders left Harrisons Landing and took his army by water to the Potomac, near Was.h.i.+ngton, the Confederate army was left free to act as it pleased. Seeing his opportunity, Lee moved at once against Pope's army, whose line stretched along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers to the Shenandoah valley in western Virginia. Near the Rapidan at Cedar Mountain was General Banks. He was first attacked and beaten; after which Lee fell upon Pope on the old field of Bull Run, and put the army to flight. Pope fell back to Was.h.i.+ngton, where his forces were united with those of McClellan. Pus.h.i.+ng northward, Lee next crossed the Potomac and entered Maryland. But he was overtaken by McClellan at Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, where, September 17, 1862, a great battle was fought, after which Lee went back to Virginia.

McClellan was now removed and the command of the army given to General Burnside. He was as reckless as McClellan was cautious, and on December 13 threw his army against the Confederates posted at Fredericksburg Heights and was beaten with dreadful slaughter. Thus at the end of 1862 Richmond was not captured, and the two armies went into winter quarters with the Rappahannock River between them.

%441. Emanc.i.p.ation of the Slaves%.--More than two years had now pa.s.sed since South Carolina had seceded, and during this time a great change had taken place in the feeling of the North towards slavery. When Lincoln was inaugurated, very few people wanted the slaves emanc.i.p.ated.

But two years of b.l.o.o.d.y fighting had convinced the North that the Union could not exist part slave, part free. As Lincoln said in his speech at Springfield in 1858, "It must be all one thing, or all the other."

Seeing that the people now felt as he did, Lincoln, in 1862 (March 6), asked Congress to agree to buy the slaves of the loyal slave states, and urged the members of Congress from those states to advise their const.i.tuents to set free their slaves and receive $300 apiece for them.

This they would not do; whereupon he decided to act upon his own authority, and declared all slaves within the lines of the Confederacy to be freemen.

For this he had two good reasons: 1. So far the war had been one for the preservation of the Union. By making it a war for union and freedom the North would become more earnest than ever. 2. The rulers of England, who wanted Southern cotton, were only waiting for a pretext to acknowledge the independence of the South. If, however, the North engaged in a war for the abolition of slavery, the people of England would not allow the independence of the Confederacy to be acknowledged by their rulers.

The time to make such a declaration was after some victory gained by the Union army. When McClellan and Lee stood face to face at Antietam, Lincoln therefore "vowed to G.o.d" that if Lee were defeated he would issue the proclamation. Lee was defeated, and, on September 22, 1862, the proclamation came forth declaring that if the Confederate States did not return to their allegiance before January 1, 1863, "all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate lines "shall be then, thenceforth, and forever free." The states of course did not return to their allegiance, and on January 1, 1863, a second proclamation was issued setting the slaves free.[1]

[Footnote 1: Nicolay and Hay's _Life of Lincoln, _Vol. VI., Chaps. 6, 8.]

Now, there are three things in connection with the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation which must be understood and remembered:

1. Lincoln did not _abolish slavery_ anywhere. He _emanc.i.p.ated_ or _set free the slaves_ of certain persons engaged in waging war against the United States government.

2. The Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation did not apply to any of the loyal slave states,[1] nor to such territory as the Union army had reconquered.[2]

In none of these places did it free slaves.

[Footnote 1: Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.]

[Footnote 2: Tennessee, thirteen parishes in Louisiana, and seven counties in Virginia.]

3. Lincoln freed the slaves by virtue of his power as commander in chief of the army of the United States, "and as a fit and necessary war measure."

%442. The Battle of Gettysburg.%--After Burnside was defeated at Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, he was removed, and General Hooker put in command of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker--"Fighting Joe," as he was called--led it against Lee, and (May 1-4, 1863) was beaten at Chancellorsville and fell back. In June Lee again took the offensive, rushed down the Shenandoah valley to the Potomac, crossed Maryland, and entered Pennsylvania, with the Army of the Potomac in pursuit. On reaching Maryland, Hooker was removed and General Meade put in command.

The opposing forces met on the hills at Gettysburg, Penn., and there, July 1-3, Lee attacked Meade. The contest was a dreadful one; no field was ever more stubbornly fought over. About one fourth of the men engaged were killed or wounded. But the splendid courage of the Union army prevailed: Lee was beaten and retired to Virginia, where he remained unmolested till the spring of 1864. Gettysburg is regarded as the greatest battle of the war, and the Union regiments engaged have taken a just pride in marking the positions they held during the three awful days of slaughter, till the field is dotted all over with beautiful monuments. On the hill back of the village is a great national cemetery, at the dedication of which Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Part of the battlefield of Gettysburg]

%443. Vicksburg%.--The day after the victory at Gettysburg, the joy of the North was yet more increased by the news that Vicksburg had surrendered (July 4) to Grant. After the defeat, of the Confederate forces at Iuka and Corinth in 1862, the Confederate line pa.s.sed across northern Mississippi, touched the river from Vicksburg to Port Hudson, and then swept off to the Gulf. As the capture of these river towns would complete the opening of the Mississippi, Grant set out to take Vicksburg. Failing in a direct advance through Mississippi, Grant sent a strong force down the river from Memphis, and later took command in person. Vicksburg stands on the top of a bluff which rises steep and straight 200 feet above the river, and had been so fortified that to capture it seemed impossible. But Grant was determined to open the river. On the west bank, he cut a ca.n.a.l through a bend, hoping to divert the river and get water pa.s.sage by the town. This failed, and he decided to cross below the town and attack from the land. To aid him in this attempt, Porter ran his gunboats past the town one night in April and carried the army over the river. Landing on the east bank, Grant won a victory at Port Gibson, and occupied Grand Gulf. Hearing that Johnston was coming to help Pemberton, Grant pushed in between them, beat Johnston at Jackson, and turning westward, drove Pemberton into Vicksburg, and began a regular siege. For seven weeks he poured in shot and sh.e.l.l day and night. To live in houses became impossible, and the women and children took refuge in caves. Food gave out, and after every kind of misery had been endured till it could be borne no longer, Vicksburg was surrendered on July 4.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Vicksburg Campaign]

Five days later (July 9, 1863), Port Hudson surrendered, and the Mississippi, as Lincoln said, "flowed unvexed to the sea." It was open from its source to its mouth, and the Confederacy was cut in two.

%444. Driving the Confederates eastward; Chickamauga and Chattanooga%.--While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Rosecrans by skillful work forced Bragg to retreat from his position south of Murfreesboro; then in a second campaign he forced Bragg to leave Chattanooga and retire into northwestern Georgia. Bragg here received more troops, and attacked Rosecrans in the Chickamauga valley (September 19 and 20, 1863), where was fought one of the most desperate battles of the war. So fierce was the onset of the Confederates that the Union right wing was driven from the field. But the left wing, under General George H. Thomas, a grand character and a splendid officer, by some of the best fighting ever seen held the enemy in check and saved the army from rout. By his firmness Thomas won the name of "the Rock of Chickamauga."

Rosecrans now went back to Chattanooga. Bragg followed, and taking position on the hills and mountains which surround the town on the east and south, shut in the Union army and besieged it. For a time it seemed in danger of starvation. But Hooker was sent from Virginia with more troops; the Army of the Tennessee under Sherman was summoned from Vicksburg; Rosecrans was superseded by Thomas, and Grant was put in command of all. Then matters changed. The forces under Thomas, moving from their lines, seized some low hills at the foot of Missionary Ridge, east of Chattanooga (November 23). On the 24th, Hooker carried the Confederate works on Lookout Mountain, southwest of the city, in a conflict often called the "Battle above the Clouds"; and Sherman was sent against the northern end of Missionary Ridge, but succeeded only in taking an outlying hill. On the 25th Sherman renewed his attack, but failed to gain the main crest, whereupon Thomas attacked the Ridge in front of Chattanooga, carried the heights, and drove off the enemy.

Bragg retreated to Dalton, in northwestern Georgia, where the command of his army was given to Joseph E. Johnston.

%445. "Marching through Georgia"; "From Atlanta to the Sea."%--As the Confederates had thus been driven from the Mississippi River, and forced back to the mountains, they had but two centers of power left. The one was the army under Lee, which, since the defeat at Gettysburg, had been lying quietly behind the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers, protecting Richmond. The other was the army at Dalton, Ga., now under J.

E. Johnston.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAR FOR THE UNION Breaking the Confederate Line]

Early in the spring of 1864 General U.S. Grant--"Unconditional Surrender Grant," as the people called him--was made lieutenant general (a rank never before given to any United States soldier except Was.h.i.+ngton and Scott), and put in command of all the Federal armies. General Sherman was left in command of the military division of the Mississippi.

Before beginning the campaign, Grant and Sherman agreed on a plan.

Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, was to drive back Lee and take Richmond. Sherman, with the armies of Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield, was to attack Johnston and push his way into Georgia. Each was to begin his movement on the same day (May 4, 1864).

On that day, accordingly, Sherman with 98,000 men marched against Johnston, flanked him out of Dalton, and step by step through the mountains to Atlanta, fighting all the way. Johnston's retreat was masterly. He intended to retreat until Sherman's army was so weakened by leaving guards in the rear to protect the railroads, over which food and supplies must come, that he could fight on equal terms. But Jefferson Davis removed Johnston at Atlanta, and put J. B. Hood in command.

Hood, in July, made three furious attacks, was beaten each time; abandoned Atlanta in September, and soon after started northwestward, in hope of drawing Sherman out of Georgia. But Sherman sent Thomas and a part of the army to Tennessee, and after following Hood for a time, he returned to Atlanta, tearing up the railroads as he went. Then, having partly burned the town, in November he started for the sea with 60,000 of his best veterans.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA]

The troops went in four columns, covering a belt of sixty miles wide, burning bridges, tearing up railroads, living on the country as they marched. Early in December the army drew near to Savannah; about the middle of the month (December 13) Fort McAllister was taken; and a few days later the city of Savannah was occupied. During all this long march to the sea, nothing was known in the North as to where Sherman was or what he was doing. Fancy the delight of Lincoln, then, when on the Christmas eve of 1864, he received this telegram:

SAVANNAH, Georgia, December 22, 1864.

To His EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT LINCOLN, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D.C.

I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition; also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.

W. T. SHERMAN, MAJOR GENERAL.

Sherman had sent the message by vessel to Fort Monroe, whence it was telegraphed to Lincoln.

%446. Sherman marches northward.%--At Savannah the army rested for a month. Sherman tells us in his _Memoirs_ that the troops grew impatient at this delay, and used to call out to him as he rode by: "Uncle Billy, I guess Grant is waiting for us at Richmond." So he was; but he did not wait very long, for on February 1, 1865, the march was resumed. The way was across South Carolina to Columbia, and then into North Carolina, with their old enemy, J. E. Johnston, in their front. Hood, in a rash moment, had besieged Thomas at Nashville; but Thomas, coming out from behind his intrenchments, utterly destroyed Hood's army. This forced Davis to put Johnston in command of a new army made up of troops taken from the seaport garrisons and remnants of Hood's army. In March, Sherman reached Goldsboro in North Carolina.

%447. Grant in Virginia.%--Meantime Grant had set out from Culpeper Courthouse on May 4, 1864, crossed the Rapidan, and entered the "Wilderness," a name given to a tract of country covered with dense woods of oak and pine and thick undergrowth. The fighting was almost incessant. The loss of life was frightful; but he pushed on to Spottsylvania Courthouse, and thence to Cold Harbor, part of the line of fortifications before Richmond. He would, as he said, "fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," and went south of Richmond and besieged Petersburg.

%448. Early's Raid, 1864.%--Lee now sent Jubal Early with 20,000 soldiers to move down the Shenandoah valley, enter Maryland, and threaten Was.h.i.+ngton. This he did, and after coming up to the fortifications of the city, he retreated to Virginia. A little later, Early sent his cavalry into Pennsylvania and burned Chambersburg.

Grant thought it was time to stop this, and sent Sheridan with an army to drive Early out of the Shenandoah valley. "It is desirable," said Grant, "that nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return."

Sheridan set out accordingly, and on September 19 he met Early in battle at Winchester, and a few days later at Fishers Hill, beat him at both places, and sent him whirling up the valley. Sheridan followed for a time, and then brought his army back to Cedar Creek, after burning barns, destroying crops, and devastating the entire upper valley.

%449. Sheridan's Ride.%--And now occurred a famous incident. About the middle of October Sheridan went to Was.h.i.+ngton, and while on his way back slept on the night of October 18 at Winchester. At 7 A.M. on the 19th he heard guns, but paid no attention to the sounds till 9 o'clock, when, as he rode quietly out of Winchester, he met a mile from town wagon trains and fugitives, and heard that Early had surprised his camp at daylight. Das.h.i.+ng up the pike with an escort of twenty men, calling to the fugitives as he pa.s.sed them to turn and face the enemy, he met the army drawn up in line eleven miles from Winchester. "Far away in the rear," says an old soldier, "we heard cheer after cheer. Were reinforcements coming? Yes, Phil Sheridan was coming, and he was a host." Das.h.i.+ng down the line, Sheridan shouted, "What troops are these?"

"The Sixth Corps," came back the response from a hundred voices. "We are all right," said Sheridan, as he swung his old hat and dashed along the line to the right. "Never mind, boys, we'll whip them yet. We shall sleep in our old quarters to-night." And they did.[1] Early was defeated.

[Footnote:1] Read Sheridan's account in his _Personal Memoirs, _Vol.

II., pp. 66-92.

%450. Surrender of Lee.%--At the beginning of 1865 the situation of Lee was desperate, and in February, Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, met Lincoln and Secretary Seward on a war vessel in Hampton Roads to discuss terms of peace. Lincoln demanded three things: 1. That the Confederate armies be disbanded and the men sent home. 2. That the Confederate States submit to the rule of Congress. 3. That slavery be abolished. These terms were not accepted, and the war went on. Sherman marched northward through the Carolinas and was reenforced from the coast; every seaport in the Confederacy was soon in Union hands; Sheridan finally dispersed Early's troops, and joined Grant before Petersburg; and the lines of Grant's army were drawn closer and closer around Petersburg and Richmond.

Plainly the end was near. On April 2 Lee announced to Davis that both Petersburg and Richmond must be abandoned at once. The rams in the James River were immediately blown up, and on the morning of April 3 General Weitzel, hearing from a negro what was going on, entered Richmond and found that Lee was in full retreat. Grant followed, and on April 9 forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, seventy-five miles west of Richmond. Grant's treatment of Lee was most generous. He was not required to give up his sword, nor his officers their side arms, nor his men their horses, which they would need, Grant said, "to work their little farms." Each officer was to give his parole not to take up arms against the United States "until properly exchanged"; each regimental commander was to do the same for his men; and, "this done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home." Immediately after this surrender 25,000 rations were issued to Lee's men.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The house in which Lee and Grant arranged the surrender]

%451. End of the Confederacy.%--What little was left of the Confederacy now went rapidly to pieces. On April 26 Johnston surrendered to Sherman near Raleigh, North Carolina. A few days later the victorious army started for Richmond, and then went on over battle-scarred Virginia to Was.h.i.+ngton. May 10, Jefferson Davis was captured. When Lee fled from Richmond, Davis hurried to Charlotte, N.C., with his cabinet, his clerks, and such gold and silver coin as was in the Confederate Treasury. But the surrender of Johnston forced Davis to retreat still farther south, till he reached Irwinsville, Ga., where the Union cavalry overtook him.